


Safe Hayven

by zannyvix



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Banishment, Death, Exile, Gen, Implied Graphic Violence, Magic, Original Character(s), Rescue, alicorn, hidden kingdom, infant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 20:31:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zannyvix/pseuds/zannyvix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief, heated romance between a unicorn serving maid and a Canterlot Prince of the Blood results in a tiny alicorn foal. Alas, the little filly's legs refuse to work properly, and even Princess Celestia in all her wisdom, with all her magic, cannot set them to rights. Her only recourse is to send away the filly and her mother to spare them the torment of Canterlot's elitist attitudes. The Everfree forest holds many dangers, and many secrets. A message from Moon Shadow's beloved sets her on the path to her daughter's destiny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Banishment

**Author's Note:**

> Short chapters, mostly backstory for an original character. The story is mine, but the concept of Hayven was dreamed up by myself and several friends, and I cannot take sole credit for it.

The gentle glow of Princess Celestia’s horn faded to nothing. The princess straightened, her shimmering mane and tail gently wafting with her graceful movements. “There now,” she said softly to the tiny filly at her feet. “Try again, little one.”

Moon Shadow tried desperately not to allow her anxiety to show as her little daughter stood, testing each leg one hoof at a time. When her daughter had been born an alicorn, sporting both the wings of her pegasus father and her mother’s own unicorn horn, the overjoyed unicorn had named the tiny foal Cloud Dancer, in light of what had seemed an auspicious occasion. Moon Shadow had quickly learned, however, that princess ponies simply were not born to lowly serving ponies, no matter who their fathers happened to be. She had been kept sequestered since before her foal’s birth, and Cloud Dancer’s very existence was known to precious few. Her little daughter had only seen what tiny fraction of Canterlot that was visible from the narrow window of their high tower room. 

And now, Princess Celestia herself had come to inspect her child. Though the princess had been very kind and perfectly polite, Moon Shadow could not help the quiver of trepidation she felt when she had bowed low and presented her daughter for Celestia to see. The worst of Moon Shadow’s fears had quickly come to pass, as Cloud Dancer had taken two steps forward, tried to execute a bow of her own, and promptly tripped over her own feet and fallen flat on her face with her little wings fluttering helplessly in the air. Moon Shadow’s heart had sunk. Though her daughter showed the same elegant lines of body as the princess, Cloud Dancer could barely take a step without tripping or stumbling. At first, Moon Shadow had put her daughter’s clumsiness down to a foal’s general lack of coordination, but as the weeks had passed, it only seemed to grow worse.

Since her own magic had been unable to help, Moon Shadow had been relieved when Princess Celestia had offered to try to fix Cloud Dancer’s ungainly legs. Now Moon Shadow held her breath as her daughter attempted to walk on her own. For a moment, hope soared as the filly took her first regal strides. She made it five steps before her overlong legs tangled, and the tiny pony went over with a little cry that had her mother rushing to her side. Cloud Dancer was unhurt, but the little filly sniffled, as though she somehow knew her performance had disappointed.

“Oh dear,” the princess remarked quietly, her tone full of sadness and regret. “This will never do.”

Moon Shadow nuzzled her little filly, and then turned tearful eyes on Celestia. “Then... There’s nothing you can do, your majesty?” she asked, her lower lip beginning to tremble.

“I’m afraid not, my dear.” The princess wore a grave expression. “If my magic cannot fix this, I fear nothing can.” Her eyes softened as the tiny pony struggled to her ungainly feet again. Celestia leaned down once more to touch horns with the child. “I cannot help you, little one, but always remember you are special. You will find your place in life. You simply have to look for it,” she said softly, before straightening again.

“But... What will we do?” Moon Shadow asked in bewilderment. 

Celestia was quiet for a long moment. “I’m sorry Moon Shadow. I’m quite certain young Cloud Dancer will not find happiness growing up in Canterlot, or anywhere else in Equestria.”

“N-not in Equestria?” Moon Shadow quailed, her ears flattening. “B-but, where else would we go?”

“My guards will take you both as far as the Everfree Forest,” Celestia told her gently, her eyes filled with sadness and pity. “From there, you will be free to go your own way, but you mustn’t return to Equestria. That is how it must be, my little pony.”

“You... You’re banishing us?” Moon Shadow squeaked.

“I know it may not seem that way, but sending you away would be a greater kindness than allowing your daughter to grow up misunderstood and ridiculed for her disabilities,” Celestia said reasonably. “Young ponies are often cruel towards those they fear or do not understand, and I would spare her that indignity. Pack your things,” the princess told her quietly. “You will be leaving tonight.”

“B-b-but...”

Moon Shadow found herself stammering to an empty room. The princess and her guard had already left. The decision was final. Banished from Equestria, from Canterlot, from everything she had ever known and loved, with only her small daughter to keep her company. She had not seen Cloud Dancer’s father, a pegasi and a relation of Celestia’s, since before the filly had been born. He had never even seen his daughter, and now they were being sent away. The unicorn curled up around her foal and cried.

 


	2. Message Delivered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moon Shadow receives a message, a small glimmer of hope before beginning her exile.

The guards came for them after nightfall. Moon Shadow hung her head low inside her traveling cloak as they were hurried toward the princess’ personal chariot by armored pegasi. Cloud Dancer fluttered awkwardly beside her, moving in little hops assisted by her tiny wings. They weren’t strong enough yet to really let her fly, but they helped her move better than her legs allowed. A heavy pair of saddlebags lay across Moon Shadow’s flanks, packed with food, and the few things she had taken for journeying. With a deep sigh, she nudged her daughter into the chariot, and followed after. No one had come to see them off. They were being sent in the cover of darkness, the night hiding their shame from the eyes of Canterlot and Equestria.

Sucking in a deep breath, Moon Shadow did her best to prepare herself to be sent into exile. She raised her head, and tried to face her future bravely.

“Excuse me, sirs,” a soft voice piped from behind one of the guard ponies. “I have a message for Miss Moon Shadow.”

Moon Shadow’s ears pricked forward. She recognized the voice as belonging to the prince’s personal body servant. “Aster?” she asked quietly, her hopes rising briefly. But Aster’s master, the father of her foal, was nowhere to be seen.

“Hello, Miss,” the pale green pegasus said.

“But why isn’t..?”

“He sends his regrets, and wishes you to know he still thinks of you fondly,” Aster told her gently. “But even he cannot thwart his sister’s decrees openly. I have a letter for you and the little one. Open it when you arrive at your destination. He hopes it might offer some little help and comfort, and sends along his best wishes.”

“He... My... Thank you,” Moon Shadow said numbly, accepting the scroll from the other serving pony. He wasn’t coming. There would be no rescue from her brave, handsome pegasus, just an apology and a cop out. She sighed and settled herself in the chariot next to her little filly. Cloud Dancer was already dozing, curled up in a fold of her mother’s cloak.

“You are welcome. Goodbye, Miss Moon Shadow.” Aster turned to go, quickly cut off from her sight by the guards.

“G-goodbye,” Moon Shadow called back faintly. And then the chariot started with a lurch, bearing them away from Canterlot to face an unknown destiny in exile.

 


	3. Love Letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moon Shadow's exile in the Everfree forest begins. She takes a moment to read the letter given her by her lost love.

The Everfree forest was deep and dark, and Moon Shadow found herself quailing at every noise. She had tucked Cloud Dancer on her back between the bags tied to her flanks. The little filly slept, her nose tucked under one tiny wing, completely heedless of the strangeness and dangers surrounding them. Celestia’s guard had left them in a clearing without so much as a farewell, and too far from any of Equestria’s known cities or towns to easily find their way back. They were left to wander, Moon Shadow wondering what would become of herself and her small daughter.

Moon Shadow trotted on, afraid to stop and sleep in this dark, forbidding place. Even though exhaustion dragged at her hooves, she forced herself to keep going. Only when the first rays of the rising sun filtered down through the thick green canopy above did she feel it might be safe to sleep. The worn out filly stumbled into a tiny clearing where a tiny spring tinkled near the base of a rocky cliff. A thick fog had risen from the ground with the coming dawn, and the sun shot it through with golden sparkles but did not dissipate it.

Sinking down in the lush grass near the spring, Moon Shadow absently cropped several mouthfuls of it. On her back, Cloud Dancer yawned, stretched her little legs and wings, and promptly fell off her mother in the grass with a squeak of dismay. Moon Shadow gave her daughter a fond, sad smile while the tiny foal sought to regain her unsteady legs.

Only when the little pony had settled back down beside her did Moon Shadow remember the scroll Aster had given her. She used a little magic to lift it from her saddle bag, unrolling it in the air before her.

> _My dearest Moon Shadow,_

She read, paused to swallow back a lump in her throat and the tears that pricked her eyes, and continued.

> _It is my deepest regret and shame that I cannot be with you now. I do not know the Princess’ reasoning for forbidding that I see you again, but I must abide by it. Know that whatever else, I do care for you and for the little one our love created. Aster told me her name is Cloud Dancer. I wish I could have seen her for myself. I can but wish you the best of luck and offer some little hope of solace in your exile._
> 
> _There is rumored to be a hidden city in the depths of the Everfree forest where even the Princess’ rule does not hold sway. The spells that protect it are magic older than even that which Celestia possesses. The city is called Hayven, and it is said that only those in need of its solace can find it. Seek Hayven, Moon Shadow. If anyone can aid you, it will be them._
> 
> _I pray Aster reaches you in time to pass off this missive. It is all I can give you, my dearest. Know that I will carry you in my heart, always._

The scroll was left unsigned, but Moon Shadow did not need a signature to tell her who had written it. A tear rolled down her muzzle to splash to the earth below. He did care. He had done as much as he could to help her, and it did give her hope. “Seek Hayven”, he had said, so she would. She dozed off with her foal by her side, dreaming of her lost love, and better times ahead. She never heard the stealthy tramp of heavy feet in the brush not far away...

 


	4. Reaching Hayven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two young gryphon cubs flying patrol come across something strange high in the trees of the Everfree forest.

“Riff! Riff-Riff-Riff!”

The older gryphon rolled his eyes and let out a put upon sigh, backwinging so his baby sister could catch up.

“ _What_ , Raff?” he growled. “Can’t y’see I’m on patrol?”

The younger gryphon came to a panting halt in the air beside him, her legs working even though there was no ground to stand on.

“There’s something down there, Riff!”

“What, the forest?” he scoffed.

“No, you big dummy,” she returned with a scowl. “ _In_ the forest. Can’t you hear it? It’s crying.”

“I don’t know what you’re-.”

A thin, high pitched squeal made him stop the lecture he had been about to launch into. Surprised and curious, Riff cocked an ear toward the fog-shrouded ground.

“Huh. Doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard before. Not a cockatrice or a manticore, and certainly not a hydra or a dragon...” he mused.

“Let’s go find out!” Raff said brightly, and tucked her wings so she zoomed toward the ground.

“Raff-!” he bit out, but she was already chasing toward the source of the sound. Grumbling, Riff winged after his little sister. She had paused near a treetop that poked up out of the fog. It looked like someone had hung a bag of some kind from a high branch, and the noise was coming from it.

“Careful,” he warned his sister when she reached for it. “It could be a trick. We should get one of the warriors-.”

But Raff was already reaching for the bag. “It looks like a saddlebag, like what the Hayven ponies use sometimes,” she said, lifting it down off the branch. “Ooof, it’s heavy!”

Again the warbling little cry sounded, much louder this time and definitely coming from the bag. Raff lifted the flap, and a tiny pony fluttered unsteadily out, little wings frantically beating the air as she struggled to stay aloft.

“Whoa,” he commented. “Where’d that come from?”

“In the bag, silly.” Raff had slung the saddlebag over her own back. She caught the little pony when the creature’s wings gave out. It was all white with a white streaked black mane, and enormous, pitiful brown eyes below a tiny horn. It made a little whimpering noise and quivered in Raff’s taloned paws.

“A pony? What’s it doing up here?”

“She’s just a baby,” his little sister cooed. “Can I keep her, Riff? I’ll treat her nice and teach her to fly just like me.”

“No, you can’t keep her.” He scowled. “She’s a pony. She doesn’t belong with us. How’d she get in that treetop? With those baby wings, I doubt she could fly that far.”

“Maybe her parents didn’t want her anymore,” Raff offered, clearly keen on the idea of keeping the baby pony herself. “That makes her ours to take care of now.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he told his sister flatly. “Stay here. I’m going to have a look around.” He didn’t need to tell her. She was still fastly clinging to the tree, making stupid faces at the baby pony. Riff snorted and descended into the foggy forest. Ponies were usually decent parents. The baby’s mother shouldn’t be far away.

The forest floor, however, told a different story. Great slashes had been torn in the earth as if by massive paws. There were gouges in the trunks of several trees, and the hoofprints of an adult pony mixed with the tracks of a much larger beast. Riff wasn’t the best tracker of his clan, but it wasn’t hard to piece together what had happened, or why the baby pony had ended up tucked in a saddle bag at the top of a tree, crying. All he knew was if the pony’s mother had not come back on her own by now, it was safe to suspect she wasn’t coming back at all.

Riff sighed and pushed off the ground, winging skyward. He paused long enough to take the battered saddlebag from Raff. “Come on,” he told his sister.

“What did you find?” she demanded.

“Nothing good,” he retorted. “Come on, Raff.”

“Where are we going?” Raff asked, taking off from the tree, still carrying the baby pony with her.

“Hayven,” he told her.

“Why?” Raff whined. “I found her. I want to keep her. I’ll do a really good job, Riff, I promise!”

“She’s a baby, not a pet, Raff,” he countered. “She needs to be with her own kind. Besides,” he added grudgingly. “You could always visit.”

“Huh.” Despite his concession, she pouted all they way to the city. Situated in a high, narrow valley, Hayven was what its name suggested. Protected by a magical fog that repelled all but those who truly needed a refuge, Hayven gathered misfits and oddballs of all sorts the way a mossy rock collected dew. Though ponies made up the greater portion of the populace, they weren’t the only ones to call it home. Riff and Raff’s clan had long claimed the mountains above Hayven their home. They protected the city’s skies from interlopers the way the fog protected the passes that led in and out.

The gryphons were regular enough visitors that no one looked askance at them when they arrived. Raff had tucked the baby pony on her back between her folded wings, the tattered saddle bag slung haphazardly around Raff’s neck. The little one curled up in his sister’s fur and feathers, sleeping the way only an infant could despite the bouncy young gryphon’s antics.

“Riff? Who’re we going to see, Riff? Huh?”

“Pipe down, will ya?” he mock growled at her. “We’re gonna go see Willow Switch. She’ll know what to do.”

Raff made a face and stuck her tongue out. “Eugh, Willow Switch? But she’s a cantankerous old mare and a stick in the mud! Riff, she doesn’t like anybody!”

“She’s the oldest pony in Hayven,” Riff countered. “C’mon.”

 


	5. Fostering Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riff and Raff find a home for their young charge

Wings folded, Riff and Raff padded through Hayven’s cobbled streets, passing the city’s residents as they began their morning business. The magical fog that kept Hayven safe had already burned off in the city proper. It took a circle of powerful unicorn mages to maintain the protection spell that shrouded their home, and a great deal of effort to keep out the things that would have preyed on them. Hayven was outside the bounds of Equestria and did not enjoy the pony princess’s magic to keep it safe. It took a combination of magic and strange sciences thought up by the denizens of Hayven’s steamworks and academy to keep their city running.

They were a motley collection of outcasts. Some had left their original homes willingly, and others had been driven out. The dwellings they lived in were as many and varied as the folk who made up Hayven’s population. They lined the valley floor, leaning against and piling atop each other. Diamond dogs tunneled into the mountains surrounding the valley, hunting for gems to barter in the city. Ponies ran businesses or farmed the narrow terraces that clung to the steep valley walls. There was a water dragon living in the tarn at the high end of the valley, and a very odd plains buffalo who raised tamed cockatrice as pets, as well as others too many and varied to name, strange creatures seen nowhere else in Equestria. The gryphons patrolled the skies, driving off strangers in exchange for food and luxuries traded with the ground dwellers. There were a few pegasi who saw to tending the weather to make sure that even Hayven’s thin soil yielded plentiful crops.

It was an odd place to live, but Riff was happy to call it home. Nothing like Hayven existed anywhere else in all the world. Every day brought new adventures, like finding the baby pony in the tree. He felt very courageous until they approached Willow Switch’s cottage. Despite what he’d told Raff, Riff would rather face down a hundred manticores than that sour old pony. Willow Switch’s tongue had a bite to match her name.

Instead of flowers, the cottage’s yard was filled with nettles and poison ivy. A big sign with ‘keep out!’ painted on it had been nailed to the fence. Even in the light of the morning sun, it kept a foreboding air of gloom to it. Riff swallowed a gulp and went straight up the walk to tap at the front door. Raff slunk in behind him, her ears flat to her head and her tail twitching behind her.

For a moment nothing happened, and then the door banged open without warning, startling Riff so he stumbled backwards, treading on his own tail. The young gryphon yowled and spread his wings, trying to catch his balance. Raff yelled, his sister shooting straight up into the sky as the elder pony rousted them both with a blistering tirade.

“-had enough of you young ruffians coming around here disturbing my peace and causing trouble! Shame on you nasty little pipsqueaks with nothing better to do than bother an old lady. Why I ought to-!”

Riff was still fighting to extricate himself from a patch of stinging nettles when the baby pony’s wavering cry jolted his attention skyward. The tiny filly had tumbled from his sister’s back when Raff made her escape, and now fell head over heels back toward the unyielding ground, wings fluttering uselessly, too small to lift her yet.

“No!” he lurched to try and catch the infant, but his wings were still fouled. There was no way he was going to get there in time. The gryphon’s heart caught in his throat, positive the baby they had rescued from the treetops was going to die here and now.

A faint nimbus of blue light surrounded the filly just before she hit the ground. The tips of her hooves touched the cobbled walk, and then she levitated into the air again, floating gently to hover in the air before Willow Switch. The elder pony’s fierce scowl had changed to a puzzled expression. She studied the trembling filly, squinting over the rims of her wireframe spectacles. Her moss-green mane and tail were streaked thickly with gray, but the tip of her horn was still visible through the snarls of the bun that bound up Willow Switch’s mane. A knit shawl draped over her thin shoulders.

The old unicorn turned on Riff, making the gryphon jump. “You! Where did you find this?”  When he just gaped at her, Willow Switch shook her walking stick at Raff, who was making nervous circles in the air above the cottage. “Get down here, missy! I want to know where you got this little pony. Who did you steal her from? Where are her parents?” The baby pony floated gently into her hooves as she spoke, and the infant gave a hiccupping cry and flung her forelegs around the crotchety unicorn’s neck.

“We didn’t steal her,” Riff insisted, preening the last of the brambles out of his wings. “We found her!”

“A likely story,” Willow Switch sniffed.

“It’s true,” Raff insisted, landing on the pathway and shuffling her paws. “She was in this bag all by herself, way up in the top of a tree.” She held up the saddle bag as proof.

“I looked for her mother, but the ground was all torn up beneath the trees,” Riff said. “Looked like it happened sometime last night. We brought her straight here to you.”

Willow Switch patted the sobbing pony’s back and scowled at the two gryphons like a lowering thundercloud. “Is that so? I suppose you had better come in, then.” With that, she turned her back and carried the baby pony into the cottage, leaving Riff and Raff to follow if they would. Brother and sister shared an uneasy glance, and then trooped in after her.


	6. Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willow Switch takes custody of the little pony, and learns a little of her past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end... for now. =)

The infant pony slumbered in Willow Switch’s knitting basket near the hearth. The two young gryphons had stammered out the entirely of their story of finding the filly, and then fled as if changelings were nipping at their tails. They had seemed only too glad to leave the infant behind. Willow Switch sat in her favorite chair, puffing at her pipe and looking thoughtfully down on her young charge. She had seen many a young pony in her day, but none that looked quite like this. The filly was perhaps two, maybe three months old at most. Very young indeed to be away from her mother. Her milk teeth had not finished growing in yet. The little one had the longest legs Willow Switch had ever seen on a foal, far too thin and spindly to support the weight of her body properly. Tiny white wings were folded at her sides. The most peculiar thing about the infant, though, was that she possessed _both_ wings _and_ a horn.

Alicorns were Equestria’s ruling class, and to Willow Switch’s knowledge, only a handful existed. They were all royal blood, descending from Celestia and her sister Luna. Why, then, had a pair of gryphon children found one of their infants all the way out here in the depths of the Everfree Forest? What could have possessed them to send away one of their children? Or perhaps they hadn’t. Perhaps the filly had been kidnapped? It was impossible to say. Hayven had no contact or quarrel with Equestria. They sought only to be left alone to live their lives.

But where did that leave this little one? She was too young to talk, too young to tell anywhere where she had come from or who had brought her here, and the poor thing was exhausted and terrified. Left with no other answers, Willow Switch reached for the saddle bag the gryphons had left behind, the one the tiny pony had been found inside. There was very little to tell her anything. The saddle bag was finely stitched and probably had been quite nice before being dragged through the muck and brush. She found nothing until she searched the pockets. A scroll tumbled out into her hooves. Frowning, Willow Switch unrolled it and began to read.

> _My dearest Moon Shadow..._

 


End file.
